The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has launched a new initiative in “response to government plans to introduce alternative (non-nuclear) energy technologies to combat climate change.”
It says its Emerging Energy Technologies (EET) Programme, which includes new online resources, is HSE’s attempt to address the health and safety implications of the government’s drive “to tackle climate change by reducing carbon dioxide emissions” and to “ensure secure, clean and affordable energy in the face of increasingly uncertain supply”.
The safety watchdog says EET’s key objectives are to support the government strategy, provide guidance “that enables the safe introduction and expansion of new energy technologies”, to “enforce the law to minimise risks to all those affected by new activities,” and to “maintain a regulatory framework that is effective, coherent and pertinent.”
It says the programme’s “work streams” include carbon capture and storage, natural gas storage and LNG imports, renewable energy, distributed generation and cleaner coal technology.
However, the UK government’s safety watchdog appears to be accepting the introduction of inherently hazardous technologies of dubious worth – carbon capture, for example – rather than nixing the unhealthy approaches at the outset.
HSE Emerging Energy Technologies (EET) Programme.
Britain: New programme on green energy risks
The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has launched a new initiative in “response to government plans to introduce alternative (non-nuclear) energy technologies to combat climate change.”
It says its Emerging Energy Technologies (EET) Programme, which includes new online resources, is HSE’s attempt to address the health and safety implications of the government’s drive “to tackle climate change by reducing carbon dioxide emissions” and to “ensure secure, clean and affordable energy in the face of increasingly uncertain supply”.
The safety watchdog says EET’s key objectives are to support the government strategy, provide guidance “that enables the safe introduction and expansion of new energy technologies”, to “enforce the law to minimise risks to all those affected by new activities,” and to “maintain a regulatory framework that is effective, coherent and pertinent.”
It says the programme’s “work streams” include carbon capture and storage, natural gas storage and LNG imports, renewable energy, distributed generation and cleaner coal technology.
However, the UK government’s safety watchdog appears to be accepting the introduction of inherently hazardous technologies of dubious worth – carbon capture, for example – rather than nixing the unhealthy approaches at the outset.
HSE Emerging Energy Technologies (EET) Programme.